Nik Brindley

This year I planted sweet potatoes as a companion plant with my corn.

I'm currently treating my itchy dog with MMS and DMSO. I bathe her in a seasalt and warm water solution then rinse her in plain water. I don't want to put shampoo on her as I'm using the DMSO.
Both MMS (which is sold as a water purifier) and DMSO (which is derived from trees) are both natural products and very effective.
I then bathe her in the MMS of 20 drops and DMSO about the same amount and add water. She stands in it and I put the solution over her.
You can buy both products online.

Welcome Ethan from sunny Spain ☀️ never heard of wool fertiliser before.

I had a little flower press when I was a child and loved it. The press was small, hexagon shaped and made from wood with nuts n bolts. A bit like Paul's description in the first post. It had cardboard with tracing paper in-between to put the flowers in.
Last year I pressed flowers for my granddaughter for a Christmas present so she'll know the types flowers that grow here in Spain.
This time I used big heavy books to press them, but I got thinking about making a type of flower press. Thanks for the reminder! 😄

I've recently discovered the flower
Winter Daphne which has an amazing scent.
Really easy to propagate.

Judith Browning wrote:I grow and gather a lot of dye plants and materials but I think my all time favorite is a variety of cosmos called 'Bright Lights'.  
The flowers can be used either fresh or dried and make a beautiful orange on wool.  I pick them weekly over the summer and they bloom prolifically on into fall.

They attract so many butterflies and other pollinators...that alone would be a great reason to grow them.  The plants are quite tall and can be bushy.






not sure I've attached the photos I intended...a crocheted wool blanket with all natural dyes...the cosmos flower dye being the orange one.  
and the second image should be our garden.  The cosmos are the orange and yellow flowers, smaller than the deeper orange/red Mexican sunflowers.

and they make prolific seed that is easy to save and share....I would be happy to send a small handful to anyone in the states who would like to try them?

What a beautiful blanket you've made, Judith and your garden looks amazing. You know I have quite a few cosmos seeds, not sure of the colours as they've been sent by a friend. I think they're mainly pink. But I'm gonna get planting them! I'm in Spain so they'll grow in no time. Thanks for the information and photos.

Rebecca Blake wrote:I'd love to try making my own fabric one day... but that project seems a bit out of my league for right now so I thought maybe I could start with growing my own natural dye.

So, I want to hear it... what's your favorite thing to grow for dye?
What part of the plant are you using and what color does it give? (any pics of your own work...?)

I need more flowers for my garden so I figured planting some that would make good dyes would be smart!

Natural dyes really interest me with the idea of dyeing my naturally grown linen. The cochineal beetle is popular over here and that's gonna be my first call. It is all over cactus' and available all along the road side.
It would also help clean up an unsightly mess.

Cat Knight wrote:I'm super interested in this topic because I'm allergic to both feathers and wool, but I love to crochet. <3

Me too. I've been researching this recently and would like to make more of my clothes from linen.
Welcome! The book sounds great!